


Chaos Tastes Like Strawberry

by stirlingphoenix



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kuro tries so hard he's doing his best, M/M, Romance, Sharpshooter Ezine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 13:16:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15558558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stirlingphoenix/pseuds/stirlingphoenix
Summary: In which it’s Lance’s birthday and for a multitude of reasons, Kuro finds baking a cake way more troublesome than it probably should be.





	Chaos Tastes Like Strawberry

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Lance Sharpshooter Ezine! You can find a link to the zine [here](https://sharpshooterzine.tumblr.com/post/176393358372/happy-birthday-lance) and I highly recommend checking out everyone else's amazing fics and artwork!

Lance has pretty eyes. They’re much more than just ‘pretty’, they’re positively gorgeous. Kuro could spend days compiling the various synonyms and phrases he might use to describe how absolutely stunning his brilliant blue eyes really are, but even when he’s fully aware of the enchanting power that particular shade of cerulean has on him personally, Kuro still finds himself bewitched whenever Lance so much as glances in his direction, and one brief second of eye contact is all it takes before Lance has him in the palm of his hand, ready to do anything his heart desires.  
Kuro always seems to fall for the ploy time and time again, which is exactly how he finds himself covered in flour with egg shells and cake batter strewn everywhere, to the point where it looks like a tornado’s torn through the room, when really, it’s all an unfortunate result of his own inexperience. His golden eyes scan the kitchen, trying to reassess his methods and figure out where he'd gone wrong, but an answer continues to elude him. He’s tried so hard, and all he has to show for his efforts is a cleaning service’s worst nightmare and a blackened slab of something he’d rescued from the oven before it managed to catch fire on him.

Lance never asked him explicitly, all he did was make a simple, off-handed comment about missing strawberry-flavored cake and homemade buttercream frosting topped with fresh fruit—while there hadn’t been any implication or suggestion of any sort attached to his wish, it was more than enough for Kuro to latch onto and decide that he absolutely needed to make one for Lance in honor of his birthday. All Kuro wanted was to do something nice for Lance, make a small gesture that proved he cherished Lance, something that showed he listened to Lance and paid attention to his needs and desires every bit as much as Lance cared about his.

But nothing’s ever that simple, and now he’s finding that out the hard way. Everything’s such a mess, Kuro doesn’t know how he’s going to get the kitchen cleaned up or fix the hunk of burnt pastry that’s supposed to be a cake before someone walks in on the mess he’s made and escalates the entire situation. He only knows that he needs to do something, and pronto. With everything in complete disarray, Kuro hardly knows where to start first and unfortunately, it's going to cost him.

“Kuro?” His ears perk up at the sound of Lance's voice a second before he sees a head of curly brown hair appear just outside the door and into his line of sight. “Hey, I've been looking all over for you.”

Kuro doesn’t get the chance to hide his poor excuse for a cake or say anything before Lance crosses the threshold and into what used to be the kitchen—after what he’s done, Kuro isn’t sure even the best of cleaning products could return the room to the pristine condition it had before he’d walked in. Despite the chaos surrounding him, Lance’s gaze zeros in on him as he makes the trek across the kitchen floor and over to him, where the heap of ash pretending to be cake sits right next to him on the adjacent counter.

“Go away, it's not finished yet,” Kuro growls in Lance's direction, only to berate himself less than a second later. It goes without saying that Lance isn't responsible for any of this, nor is Kuro upset with him. He can't help but be frustrated—nothing's coming together like it should, he can't even make a simple cake, and now Lance has a row seat to how much of a failure he is. Fresh out of options, Kuro breathes a heavy sigh, slumping his shoulders in defeat as Lance takes a moment to absorb the extent of the damage.

“Take it easy,” Lance tries, sounding completely unfazed as he reaches out for Kuro, his slender fingers just shy of touching him, not out of fear, but out of respect. They've made so much progress with each other, he can touch Lance without fearing he might hurt him, and the intimacy between them is so soft and so unbelievably tender that Kuro still has trouble coming to terms with the fact that this his reality, that Lance wants to share his life with him—that Lance wants to be with him.

“It's okay,” Lance adds quietly. His soothing tone does the trick in calming him down, making his initial anger to dissipate entirely.

“It's not.” Dejection replaces the irritation that had laced his voice only a moment before—Kuro detests how weak and desperate he sounds, but he can't help it anymore. “I need to make this cake.”

“The party we're having already has a cake, you know?” Lance tries, intertwining both of his arms with one of Kuro's and giving it a slight tug as if to coax him along. “Was kinda hoping you'd wanna join us.”

Kuro’s not surprised—he could smell the sweet aroma of the cake Hunk had baked earlier from several hallways down, but he still wanted to make a cake of his own for Lance.

“Yeah, but,” Kuro trails off, deciding he shouldn't press the matter any further. It's Lance's big day, and even if he'd had good intentions in the beginning, he's screwed up, and now the last thing he wants to do is make it all about himself.

“But?” As if Lance's refusal to let the matter go isn't bad enough, he gives Kuro that look he can't possibly ignore—the one that compels him to answer.

“I wanted to do this for you.” Kuro's voice is barely above a whisper. More than anything else, Kuro wishes he could get Lance to understand without explaining himself, it's always so hard and he never says the right thing, upsetting whomever he's dealing with at the time and ultimately perpetuating the cycle of misunderstanding that he can't ever seem to claw his way out of.

Everyone except Lance, his sweet, affectionate Lance, the only person he knows who would take the time to learn about and understand someone like him—but even Lance has his limits, Kuro's certain of it. He's yet to cross that line, but not a day goes by where Kuro doesn't wonder which mishap will be the one that pushes Lance farther than he's able to handle.

“Look, I know we've got a mess on our hands, but we can salvage this.” The confident grin playing upon the pair of lips he loves so much beckons for Kuro's trust.

“How?” Kuro blinks, unsure of whether he can believe that—he wants to, Lance has never lead him astray before, even when he's convinced of the contrary. “It's all burnt.”

“Maybe not,” Lance replies, the grin playing upon his lips gives Kuro the impression Lance knows exactly what he's doing, “we all make mistakes, but I have a hard time believing you managed to turn a nine by thirteen pan of cake batter into a crispy block.”

“Don't hold your breath,” Kuro mumbles, all but certain that's exactly what he did.

“Hush and let me show you how it's done,” Lance counters as he takes a knife Kuro hadn't tried to use yet and begins cutting along the edge of the cake, pulling it back just enough to see what's underneath without letting Kuro see too.

“See, told you!” Lance exclaims, pulling away the crust and revealing a moist underside of cake completely unscathed by Kuro’s misadventures with the oven. “This is perfect.”

“Really?” Kuro can hardly believe his eyes—it’s nowhere near as pretty as the pictures suggest it should be, but at least part of his cake looks halfway edible.

“Yes, really.” Lance gives him a light nudge with his elbow before continuing with his work in cutting away the burnt edges, until the blackened clump he'd created is transformed into a pink sponge—it’s nowhere near presentable enough in his opinion, but maybe with a little frosting—

Kuro’s musings are cut short when Lance carves off a sliver of cake large enough for one bite before taking the piece between his figures bringing it to his mouth.

“Wait don't—”

But it's too late. By the time Kuro's initial shock wears off and he's able to reach out for Lance, he's already sliding the small bite of cake past his lips, effectively sampling Kuro's work.

“This is great.” The sweet smile Lance wears tells Kuro that he really means it—the same gentle grin puts his mind at ease, and he can't help but return it with a small, yet genuine one of its own while he watches Lance cut off another piece. “You should taste your work,” Lance speaks as if he's making a suggestion Kuro could very well decline, but his one and only choice is made abundantly clear when Lance places the bite of cake right in front of his lips. Kuro being, well, himself, he doesn't let Lance get away with feeding him without stealing a little something for himself by darting his tongue out and getting a taste of Lance's sugar-coated fingertips along with the bit of pastry Lance just gave him.

“Not bad, I guess,” Kuro concedes, the satisfied grin he wears undermines his attempt at sounding reluctant.

“You guess,” Lance repeats, using a tone that confirms he sees past Kuro's antics, but rather than declaring his victory, he sets his sights on the frosting Kuro had managed to whip up whilst the cake had been baking. Just like before, Lance can't seem to keep his curious paws out of the bowl—Kuro watches as one of Lance's nimble fingers runs along the edge, picking up just enough frosting for a taste.

Knowing it won’t do any good, Kuro doesn’t try to stop Lance this time around stares with his mouth slightly ajar as Lance's tongue pokes out between a pair of saccharine lips and licks his finger clean of buttercream frosting. He knows there isn't any salacious intent behind Lance's move, but that doesn't stop Kuro's mind from wandering down a less than meritorious path—not that his runaway thoughts get very far.

“This is really good too,” Lance's soft voice brings him back to the matter at hand, gracing him an earnest smile far brighter than any sun Kuro's ever seen.

“Only ‘cause it didn’t require an oven,” Kuro counters, however, if he's being totally honest with himself, he'll admit that he's kind of amazed he didn't find some way to burn that as well.

Lance narrows his eyes, giving him a certain look that says he should, as Lance might say, check that tone of his, but doesn't say the sentiment out loud. Instead, Lance reaches across the table for a nearby spatula, curling his delicate fingers around the wooden handle and bringing it up into the air.

“What do you say we work on presentation a bit?” Extending the hand holding the spatula out to him, Lance tips the utensil towards himself, gesturing for Kuro to come closer.

It's a call Kuro wouldn't dare refuse and is more than enough to put a smile on his face.

“Okay.” Kuro shakes his head, attempting to take a step back and pretend like something simple like frosting a cake doesn’t make him this happy. “If you want to, I mean.”

A soft hum passes through Lance's lips, but he lets Kuro have his way and steps to the side, making room for Kuro at the table. As he steps into place, Lance takes ahold of his arm, where he turns it, so he has Kuro’s palm facing up. Lance looks directly at him, never once breaking eye contact as he places the handle of the spatula in his hand, gently closing his metallic fingers around it. Kuro silently laments his inability to feel Lance’s warmth against his Galra tech, but having Lance so close and willing to touch the most frightening part of him without even a hint of fear speaks volumes in its own way. Perhaps Lance doesn't see the same thing he does, but to Kuro, it's the little moments like these, where Lance doesn't appear to be making an effort in his affections, but instead just being himself, that really show him his worth.

If Kuro's being honest with himself, he'll admit that the tender touches Lance gives him are far from infrequent. In fact, Lance doesn't ever seem to ever hold back with him, and Kuro knows he's being greedy with his insatiable need to garner even more of Lance's attention, but he can't help it. He can't ever seem to get enough of Lance, and for reasons Kuro can't begin to fathom, Lance is only too happy to indulge him.

Getting caught up in his own thoughts over how special Lance is to him, the finer details of finishing the cake come together before he realizes it. The next thing Kuro knows, the cake is completely covered in his homemade frosting and Lance has him topping everything off with the fruit slices he'd cut up earlier.

“And voila!” Lance proclaims as he guides Kuro’s hand to add the final berry atop the cake, effectively completing their work. “Worthy of the first-place prize on 'Cake Wars’.”

“Cake wars?” Kuro blinks, unsure of what Lance might be referring to.

“A TV program back on Earth,” Lance clarifies with a sheepish grin playing upon his lips. “Remind me later and I'll show you.”

The implication in Lance's tone fills Kuro's entire being with unprecedented warmth and makes everything he has with Lance feel so very real—more than that really, it gives him hope for the future.

Kuro never used to let himself think too far in advance, not when he only saw darkness and hatred, so much unbearable hatred, it nearly tore him apart from the inside out, clawing at the fiber of his very existence until there was nothing left—no hope for salvation nor reason to continue the meaningless farce he called life.

But then Lance came along when he’d needed help more than ever before, shedding light upon his soul and banishing the darkness. Now, whenever he thinks about what's to come, he's hard-pressed to stop. He can't, not when his senses become overwhelmed with a picture-perfect vision outlined in an exquisite ocean blue, the likes of which he'll never find anywhere else, along with a warm Caribbean breeze caressing his skin, lightly scented with sea salt and coconut.

“I should clean this up.” Kuro shakes his head, making himself refocus on the here and now, where flour dust covers almost every surface (even the ones he hadn't used in his baking escapades) and the cabinets are somehow caked in pink batter. Honestly, it'll be a miracle if he gets himself out of this mess without causing irreparable damage.

“I'll help,” Lance declares, setting the cake off to the side on one of the only clear countertops that escaped the whirlwind of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter Kuro created unscathed, and grabbing a few wash rags along the way.

“No, it's your birthday.” Kuro tries to intervene, which with him, comes in the form of him placing his large hands atop Lance's shoulders and with a sense of tenderness Kuro's still surprised he's capable of, gently nudges Lance towards the door.

“And your point is?” Lance's inquiry leaves him at a loss for words and puts a stop to his current efforts. “Doesn't matter what day it is, I'll always have your back.”

For a second, Kuro thinks to protest—there’s an entire party in his honor going on on the other side of the castleship, and he needs to be there, not stuck here with him cleaning up a mess he had nothing to do with.

But in the end, he doesn’t, not when Lance smiles at him so earnestly, like there’s no other place he’d rather be. So rather than putting up a fuss, Kuro lets Lance help him clean up. He'd like to think he's more than capable of doing this part on his own, but Lance knows the place better and can tell him exactly where he'll find the much-needed cleaning supplies, along with where to put the utensils he used—he may have found them, but when each drawer looks the same it makes putting everything back in its proper spot a challenge on its own.

“You about done over there?” Lance calls out to him from the other side of the kitchen after a while, putting the broom he'd been using to sweep the floor in the closet and turning back to him.

“Just about,” Kuro replies, setting the last dish inside the cabinet and closing the cupboard before following suit and looking back at Lance. “There. Good as new and exactly how I found it.”

“Proud of you, babe,” Lance replies, wearing a bright smile as he makes his way over to Kuro, where he is quick to open his arms and wrap Lance up in a warm embrace.

Pulling back a bit after a few doboshes, Lance's gaze shifts down to his neck, donning a playful grin that reminds Kuro of the red ribbon he'd put around his neck earlier that day. He'd even managed to show a little finesse with the bow he'd fixed.

“You did a lovely job of wrapping yourself up for me.” One of Lance's nimble fingers toys with the loose ends of ribbon that fall down his chest, eliciting a soft purr from the bottom of his throat. He wasn't going to tell Lance about a related detail until later, but Lance's fingertips practically beg him to with the teasing way in which they ghost over bare skin his V-neck shirt leaves exposed.

“My neck’s not the only thing I put a bow on.” He tries to casual about it, like it's not it's not a big deal, but Kuro can't help the mischievous smirk curling up on his lips, instantly giving himself away.

“Oh?” Lance blinks, as if he's unsure of where Kuro’s going with this, wearing the cutest expression that serves as a stark contrast to the vibe he'd been going for, that is, until his big eyes drift down his body, lingering on a certain area for a second longer than necessary before realization finally flashes across the sea of bright blue. “You didn't.”

“Find out for yourself,” Kuro all but dares for Lance's curious hands to wander lower and feel him up, however he's not at all surprised when Lance keeps his hands exactly where they are, smiling up at him with a grin that perfectly exemplifies his opinion—that while he's thrilled by Kuro's little treat, it's an offer he'd be wise to wait a little longer for.

“I haven't unwrapped any of my other presents yet, and I always have the best for last, so,” Lance trails off, placing a soft kiss on his cheek and nuzzling that spot—the gesture, as small as it is, already has Kuro weak in the knees. Only Lance could make him swoon so easily, not that he'd have it any other way.

“The sooner we get back to the party the sooner I'll get to play with your 'gift,’” Lance pauses with a wink, “so let's get going.” Lance clasps his hand in both of his and gives it a small tug, making another attempt in gently coaxing him out of the kitchen and over to the party. And just like last time, Kuro remains in place. Thanks to Lance he’d succeeded in making the simple cake he’d wanted to for his birthday, but in terms of celebrating the special occasion (except of course, after the party when they’re alone) Kuro hadn’t exactly planned on being involved. He knows where he is and isn’t wanted and being around a group of people who aren’t nearly so fond of him would be more of a burden to Lance than anything else.

“Maybe I can wait in your room until it's over?” Kuro suggests after Lance gives him a questioning look.

“Do you really not want to come?” Kuro feels his heart sink to the floor when Lance breaks eye contact with him—he can still see the hurt in Lance's eyes, even as his gaze drifts over to the side somewhere.

“I want to,” Kuro admits reaching out to Lance with his free hand, only for it to fall short and back down to his side, “but I don't want to ruin your party either.” If Lance won’t put it together on his own, then Kuro will say it outright—he just wants Lance to have fun and enjoy himself, which doesn’t include him looming over his shoulder the entire time.

“Kuro.” Letting go of his arm, Lance reaches out to him, placing a hand on either side of his face, cupping his cheeks and effectively making sure Kuro can’t avert his gaze. “You could never.” Lance punctuates his statement with a chaste kiss to Kuro’s cheek. “I wanna celebrate this with you, and it would mean the world to have you there with me, through all of it.”

“Can I—” Kuro trails off, unable to make himself finish the question. One hand, it seems so simple—in fact, he already knows the answer, of course, Lance wants their soft moments every bit as much as he does, but there's still a small part of him that sees weakness in admitting he wants something more tender. But fortunately, Lance being the shining star he is, doesn’t need him too.

“You’ll have a difficult time getting me to let go,” Lance says, giving Kuro the reply he asks for, placing another soft kiss against his cheek as his hands slide back down and resume their earlier position around his arm. Wordlessly, Lance takes a step forward, and this time Kuro follows without hesitation.

A little reassurance is all it takes, and from that point on, it goes without saying that as long as Lance will have him, Kuro will be with him every step of the way.


End file.
